Sanitary tissue products and nonwoven fabrics find uses in many product areas including disposable cleaning products and disposable absorbent articles. Sanitary tissue products and nonwoven fabrics are useful in the area of lotioned wipes that generally include a nonwoven that has been pretreated with an aqueous or non-aqueous composition such as baby-wipes, hard-surface cleaning wipes and the like. Nonwovens are also useful in the area of un-lotioned wipes that generally include the nonwoven as the finished product such as paper-towels and other disposable wiping product. Unlotioned wipes products may optionally include a surface treatment to modify the abrasive or scrubbing properties of the nonwoven that may increase the abrasiveness for harder cleaning jobs or reduce the abrasiveness for gentler cleaning jobs. Nonwovens are also useful in the area of absorbent articles, which are generally assembled from a combination of nonwovens and/or film materials. Sanitary tissue products are used are wiping instruments in bathrooms, kitchens, or other uses for cleaning surfaces.
In any of the product areas in which nonwovens and sanitary tissue products are generally useful, it can be desirable to increase the softness of the nonwoven or sanitary tissue product itself. For example, individuals, parents and caregivers naturally seek to provide as much comfort as they can for themselves and for their babies, and utilizing products such as lotioned cleaning wipes, un-lotioned cleaning wipes, disposable diapers and the like that they perceive as relatively soft provides reassurance that they are doing what they can to provide comfort in that context. The same can be said of other types of cleaning wipes and/or disposable absorbent articles that are designed to be used on, applied to and/or worn close the skin or used on delicate surfaces, such as facial wipes, hard-surface wipes, fabric-cleaning wipes, training pants, adult incontinence undergarments, feminine hygiene products, breast pads, care mats, bibs, and wound dressing products, a soft hand feel can reassure the wearer or caregiver that the article will be gentle to the treated surface and/or comfortable against the skin.
Many manufacturers thus devote efforts toward enhancing the softness of the various materials used to make such products, such as various web materials, including nonwoven web materials formed from polymer fibers, and laminates thereof, forming the products. Various efforts have been made to provide or alter features of nonwoven web materials and sanitary tissue products with the objective of enhancing consumer perceptions of softness. These efforts have included selection and/or manipulation of fiber chemistry, basis weight, loft, fiber density, configuration and size, tinting and/or opacifying, embossing or bonding in various patterns, and the like.
These approaches have had varying degrees of success, but have left room for improvement in enhancing the softness of such disposable absorbent articles. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an alternative to those disposable absorbent articles already known in the art.